Newton privately rejected his own mechanistic system as partial truth.

Evidence

Like Leibniz, Newton was deeply concerned about the problem of organic life raised by the mechanization of the cosmos. Although his system of the world was to become the mechanistic model for the future, he privately believed it to be at best a partial truth. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 1045

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how widely known is the gap between Newton’s public mechanics and private vitalism, and what do historians make of it?
• XREF: Connects to chapter 2’s note that Newton suppressed magical and alchemical ideas to promote mechanism. — connects to: Newton suppressed magical and alchemical ideas to promote a mechanical view of nature. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 35